Earlier today, I live-tooted from Scottish Autism’s 2022 conference, Behind the Mask, the first conference the charity has held since 2019.
Tag: neurodiversity
Are you Aprilness-aware?
It is, thankfully, nearly the end of another month with Aprilness. Another Autism Awareness Month – or as the ever-so-slightly-more enlightened have started to call it, Autism Acceptance Month. These are not labels chosen by the Autistic community (and I use a capital A here intentionally). This month of awareness- or acceptance-raising isn’t something any of us asked for.
Five years of Pride
Today, 8 August 2021, is the culmination of the week of the first Neuro Pride Ireland, fittingly ending on 8/8, which with a little imagination can be read as ∞/∞, the infinity sign being a symbol of the neurodiversity movement. (Also 8/8 = 1, and we come together as one.) But as important as Neuro… Continue reading Five years of Pride
Scottish Autism conference 2019: a personal perspective
My other post on Scottish Autism’s 2019 conference gives a blow-by-blow account of the conference as it happened, based on my live tweets. This post is more of a reflection on my own personal experience of the event, as a newly diagnosed autistic person attending a conference like this for the first time. When the… Continue reading Scottish Autism conference 2019: a personal perspective
Scottish Autism conference 2019: as it happened
Scottish Autism, a charity offering services, support and advocacy for autistic people across Scotland, held its 2019 annual conference in the Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow, on 14 November. I was fortunate to be supported by generous Ko-fi crowdfunders to attend the conference and live-tweet the event. This post is based on what I tweeted on… Continue reading Scottish Autism conference 2019: as it happened
To PhD or not to PhD?
A linguistic overview of the university In 1997, I abandoned a PhD in mathematics, which I had begun in 1993. It had started to go seriously wrong in 1996, if not earlier, but I persisted for a ridiculously long time with the illusion that I could still finish. I was completely unaware at the time… Continue reading To PhD or not to PhD?
A fantasia on aphantasia
Once again, I interrupt my as-yet-still-untitled long-form story to bring you a personal blog post. This one’s not quite an ‘unpost’ but might nevertheless be a bit on the rambly and ill-formed side, hence ‘fantasia’. That’s because it’s a reaction to something I discovered about myself (and everyone else) only yesterday. And when I say… Continue reading A fantasia on aphantasia
Out of place, out of time, out of date?
Thrice recently I have had feelings of not fitting in – for different reasons. (I rarely get to use the word thrice! I wish there were a similar word for ‘four times’ too.)
Questioning my neurotypicality
I recently read a Twitter thread by Mia Steinberg on auditory processing disorder (APD). Earlier I had watched the #TakeTheMaskOff launch video by Christa Holmans (the Neurodivergent Rebel), Kieran Rose (the Autistic Advocate), Sara Jane Harvey (Agony Autie) and Hannah Molesworth (Do I look autistic yet?). Both the Twitter thread and the YouTube video talked about zoning out in conversations – perhaps for different but overlapping reasons. This made me think about times when I zone out (which I hope isn’t always obvious!).